Holy Macaroni!

[thyme4change]

I had no idea "Office" was so expensive. The computer was $300 - being able to run excel will cost me $150 - that is a 50% increase in the cost of the computer. Nuts.

[soon2bmomof3]

Does your company have a deal with Microsoft where you can get Office 2010 for $12 ($22 if you want the back up CD)? I think it's call HUP (Home Use Program?)

[daennera]

Do you know any college students. I know as a college student I get one copy of Office for like $30. I didn't need it, so I bought it and gave it to a friend.

[spartan7886]

OpenOffice is a free and open-source office suite. It is more comparable to Office 2003 than Office 2010, but that may be a plus if you are not a fan of the ribbon. I'm not sure if it can save to the new Office files, but it manages the old Office formats pretty well. Office 2007 and 2010 are capable of opening the OpenDocument formats OpenOffice uses.

I have also heard good things about AbiWord and GnuCalc as free, open-source replacements for Word and Excel, but I don't have personal experience with them.

ETA @daennera Unless things have changed in the past few years, a Student copy of Office was good for up to three computers.

[thyme4change]

The $150 version is the "student version." Maybe there is an even cheaper student version?

I really want to get the new 2007 version because then I can bring work home.

[kristi28]

If you are wanting the software (at least in part) for work, you should find out what sort of license they have at your employer. I have office on my home machine through my work - they license users (so they have already paid for me) and I can have the software on more than one machine, provided I am not using more than one copy of the software at any time. If your employer has something similar, they may be able to put Office on your home machine for you - no charge at all.

[Deleted]

You sure you don't mean the 2010 version? We got our copy for about $100 because I am a teacher, but they made me actually email them my pay stub to prove it.

Of course, a month later the district emailed us with the offer of a license for $9.99. Lol.

[thyme4change]

When I open Excel at work it says "Excel 2007"

I'm going to try spartan's suggestions.

[Deleted]

Thyme... you have kids at home... go to journyed.com.. you'll have to send a letter documenting you have a student in the house, and then you can get a student rate... your kids school might even have a better discount than the regular one... check it out...

[debtheaven]

Thyme we're all on Macs here but you can buy a group iWorks for Macs. It is more expensive than the single one, but not much more, and it allows you to install iWorks on five computers.

Maybe there is something similar for Office, and you can get a friend or your office to share the cost?

Somehow, it being Microsoft, I'm guessing not.

ETA: Sorry, I agree with Spartan, Open Office is great. You may need to save your files as dot doc or as PDFs though depending on who is receiving them. My boss has a PC (piece o' carp) and there was no rhyme or reason as to what he could or could not open from Open Office so I just automatically save whatever I send him as dot doc (ie Word) and all is well.

[dividend]

Jan 11, 2011 17:45:03 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

The $150 version is the "student version." Maybe there is an even cheaper student version?

I really want to get the new 2007 version because then I can bring work home.

Just save your 2007 spreadsheets as .xls instead of .xlsx and then you can use them with the older Excel versions. Unless the stuff you're doing is really dependent on the new features.

[thyme4change]

The pivot tables don't translate back and forth. I could do it occassionally - but it would be a lot of hassle.

The real answer is I will have to man-up and request a laptop. Technically, I am not allowed to put any work files on my home computer. I'm going to wait a bit to ask for the laptop - as my desktop is fairly new. If I can make it through to next summer my boss might forget where I fell on the replacement list.

[8 Bit WWBG]

...:::"Does your company have a deal with Microsoft where you can get Office 2010 for $12 ($22 if you want the back up CD)? I think it's call HUP (Home Use Program?) ":::...

I took advantage of this from my employer. $22 for the essentials. Sweet deal!

[tiredturkey]

When I got my new computer two years ago, I got the student version of Office which had Word and Excel, no PowerPoint. I don't use PowerPoint so it worked for me and it was only about $100.